VMware Gets Docker Love--Announces A Raft Of Integrations And Partnerships

It was only a matter of time until VMware kind of virtualization realized that Docker, the containerization initiative that is setting the world on fire, constitutes both a very real risk and a massive opportunity. Despite the hyperbole suggesting that Containers will disrupt virtualization in the near future, virtualization remains an important part of the way enterprise IT works. That said, this is a deafening roar of interest from IT practitioners about how containers in general, and Docker in particular, fits into their existing technology landscape.

That question, and the existence of the Docker ecosystem, got a significant validation today at VMworld (disclosure:
VMware covered my travel and expenses to attend the event) with the announcement of some Docker related news. The news covers partnerships with Docker, Google and Pivotal, all aimed at helping organizations run and manage their container-based applications across private, public and hybrid clouds.

So, for the announcements. VMware will enable enterprises to run containerized applications on their VMware infrastructure or on the VMware vCloud Air service (the new name for VMware’s hybrid service, formerly known as vCHS). Docker,
Google and Pivotal are committing to multiple areas of collaboration with VMware including:

Docker and VMware will collaborate on enabling Docker Engine on VMware workflows from build to deploy for VMware vSphere to VMware vCloud Air as well as collaborate on Docker-related open source projects libswarm, libcontainer and libchan;

Docker and VMware will jointly work on furthering areas of interoperability between Docker and VMware products including Docker Hub with VMware vCloud Air, VMware vCenter Server and VMware vCloud Automation Center;

VMware has joined the Kubernetes community and will make Kubernetes’ patterns, APIs and tools available to enterprises;

Google and VMware will work together to bring the pod based networking model to Open vSwitch enabling OpenStack and multi-cloud integration of Kubernetes;

VMware is contributing code to bring Kubernetes to VMware vSphere to make it easy for enterprises get started with container management; and,

VMware, Pivotal and Docker are collaborating on enhancing the Docker libcontainer project with capabilities from Warden, a Linux Container technology originally developed at VMware for Cloud Foundry.

MyPOV

Despite containers arguably not yet being top of mind for VMware’s customer base, the company was at serious risk of looking like a laggard with no active involvement in the Docker ecosystem. With these announcements, VMware is committing to supporting an up and coming orchestration initiative (Kubernetes) along with supporting customers to deploy and manage containerized applications over their distributed infrastructures.

VMware has no doubt been thinking about how best to play within the developing Docker ecosystem – too much support and VMware risks raising questions in the mind of its customers about the continuing need for virtualization. However too little support and VMware risks a slow but inexorable march towards disruption. With these announcements the company has found a logical way to both support containerization but within the context of existing virtualized and vSphere environments. Expect to see more related announcements before the week is out from VMware and its partners.